Letters to the editor: Compromise, guns, and sociology

Letters

September 24, 2013

Compromise to survive

No corporation, no small business, no family can survive without compromise. Congress — with its 19 percent approval rating — continues to fight and disagree on the most important issues facing our nation.

We are at risk of becoming a second-rate country unless we force our elected officials on both sides of the aisle to find solutions to the serious problems facing our country.

Budget compromise? Let's shut down the government.

Immigration reform? Let's deprive highly educated foreigners and innocent people brought to the U.S. from becoming citizens.

Affordable Care Act? Let's continue to fight the president and ignore ways of repairing versus repealing, even through it's the law of the land that is being subjected to sabotage. We are undergoing a political war with no winner and one loser: the U.S.

Ron Armillei Orlando

Be thankful for protectors with guns

Responding to the letter Sunday from Mary Elizabeth McIlvane about guns replacing trust, I believe that the society she envisions — one that is dominated by complete, unlimited trust — can exist only in an ideal world, and that will never come to pass.

We have always had a criminal element, and regardless of laws that have been passed and will continue to be passed, the criminal element will always exist. Sensible citizens who seek only to protect themselves and their loved ones will, of necessity, need to take necessary precautions to ensure that safety.

That ensuring safety involves carrying concealed weapons in order to deter hoodlums from preying on law-abiding citizens is regrettable. Police officers cannot protect us; they can only seek to bring the perpetrators to justice, which is oftentimes impossible.

Therefore, it falls to private citizens to change our status from prey to self-protectors. Don't fear these self-protectors. Be thankful they're there.

What's so sad is that I didn't have to read the newspaper to know the correct answers. I just picked the worse options, and I correctly answered every question. I keep wondering if most of the population of this fine state is under some kind of evil spell that keeps them from being outraged at the nonsense going on in their city halls and state Legislature.

Actually, I have a pretty good sociological explanation for the state of our state, involving the coinciding effects of the following:

•Sound-bite communication.

•Fear mongering and scapegoating.

•Simultaneous increase of big money in politics and decrease in media literacy of the public.

•Anti-intellectualism and the defunding of education at all levels.

•The simple psychology of the human mind, which tends to embrace the least complex and least self-incriminating explanation to eliminate any cognitive dissonance.

And, of course, there are lots of folks on television making big bucks by spewing ready-made, simplistic, fact-free explanations to give us cognitive relief.

Or, for a more entertaining reference, refer to the film "Batman Forever," in which the Riddler uses the television to suck out everyone's brains.

Rhonda L.S. Ovist Casselberry

Leaders must rethink spending

Regarding the article "Deadline looms for Egyptian military aid" on OrlandoSentinel.com Sept. 8, about the effects of federal sequestration:

The article does not mention the real collateral damage from these brutal cuts: the children, seniors and people with disabilities who are being left out in the cold as housing programs grind to a halt. Veterans are also losing housing aid, as well as job training and even access to medical clinics.

We have a debt problem in this country, but the solution doesn't lie in piling more cuts on the most vulnerable among us. Stronger leaders would look more critically at the existing budget and take a deeper bite out of the real sources of overspending and waste.

For example, the $1.5 trillion F-35 fighter-jet program is a zombie that seems immune to budget cuts no matter how badly it performs, how many years behind schedule it falls, or how many billions over budget it runs.

Cutting aid to homeless veterans while propping up expensive failures like the F-35 is wrong. We deserve better from our leaders in the Congress.

Bob Ridder Memphis, Tenn.

America's depths

Thanks to Sunday letter-writer Jim Kohlmann for his articulate summation of current-day America.

The phrase "...a nation where immorality is celebrated ... and where God is mocked in virtually every entertainment venue..." is a stunning description of the depth to which we've lowered ourselves.

If we continue to eat from the apple of life and fling the core in God's face, will the end of life be multiple choice?